The Pulse | Thursday, December 20, 2018

A Look Back on SGNA in 2018

At the end of 2017, SGNA announced the launch of its strategic plan for 2018-2020. Developed by the SGNA Board of Directors, key stakeholders, and with input from ABCGN and other partners, it serves as a roadmap to ensure SGNA remains at the forefront of issues affecting the profession.

Since the launch of this plan, SGNA has made progress in several areas. Following are a few updates:

Strategic Plan Goal #1, Membership – Personas: SGNA’s membership goal sets out to provide compelling and relevant resources for its members across a variety of job roles. Whether you’re an associate, GI nurse or nurse manager, SGNA wants to ensure you have the resources to succeed. In order to purposefully engage each audience, SGNA has developed personas, or semi-fictional people created through research that personify the average member in a given role. With these personas developed, SGNA will focus on the next step in the membership goal – using these personas to better communicate and engage its members across all sectors mentioned above.    

Strategic Plan Goal #1, Membership – Regional Toolkits: SGNA is made up of a number of regional societies across the country, providing a local “home base” for all things GI. To better assist regional chapters in driving membership retention through increased engagement and education, SGNA created Regional Toolkits. Regional Toolkits are being updated, and include example email communications, social media posts, web graphics and PowerPoint slides.

In addition to revamping the Regional Societies Toolkits, SGNA will launch SGNA Communities, a new online forum where Regional Societies, Special Interest Groups (SIGS), Infection Prevention Champions and other members can engage in discussion, share resources and increase their knowledge. SGNA Communities launches in early January – keep an eye out for this exciting new platform.

Strategic Plan Goal #2, Quality Care: This goal focused on how SGNA will drive the quality of care in all areas of gastroenterology practice for nurses and associates. After discussing the long-term vision for this goal, however, the SGNA Board of Directors will revisit goal #2 and develop a new strategy for achieving this goal. More information will be provided as it is available.

Strategic Plan Goal #3, Future of Nursing – Role Descriptions: To help advance the roles of nurses and associates within the profession, SGNA, through the Practice Committee, has been reviewing and updating our role delineations to ensure they are up-to-date and promoting the full scope of each role. Additional new role delineations are being  created for the Nurse Navigator. (Learn more about role delineations on the Position Statements page on SGNA.org.)

Strategic Plan Goal #3, Future of Nursing – Health Policy Agenda: SGNA has begun the first steps of enacting its health policy, setting its agenda through the next three years. SGNA will have two main policies, focused on infection prevention and colorectal cancer, and intends to reach out to and work with the Joint Commission, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Center for Disease Control (CDC) and the Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Healthcare, Inc. (AAHC) to move our health policy agenda forward.

In addition to making progress on the strategic plan, SGNA has been busy at work behind the scenes on a number of initiatives – some already launched and others still in the works. This includes the launch of The Inside Tract, which took place in February. With this launch, SGNA moved its blog to a dedicated microsite, sharing the latest news and member stories each week. In the fall, SGNA hosted a revamped Leadership Conference for regional representatives, and will continue to revamp this conference in the years to come. Looking ahead to early next year, SGNA will launch an app, giving you access to all things SGNA through mobile and tablet devices.  

Lastly, SGNA is incredibly proud of the work its members do each day to advance the profession. In this year alone, SGNA members have sat on the fluoroscopy standards review panel, the board of the Medtronic Nursing Society Advisory, reviewed the Society of Healthcare Epidemiology of America Disinfection Sterilization Guidelines, and reviewed the American Cancer Society’s Guideline for Colorectal Cancer Screening.

We look forward to kicking off a new year with you soon, filled with new and exciting initiatives and more progress to be made.